Subject: Editorial: MMOW not a civil rights march
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 23:29:24 EDT

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And now, a word from our sponsors...
or `Why the MMOW is not the 4th
Civil Rights March by our Community'

by Billy Hileman
©2000 Planet Q

    For two years critics of the Millennium March on Washington (MMOW) have 
continued to protest how the upcoming April 30th event has been organized. 
The rally which will take place on the Washington Mall is just beginning to 
get significant attention in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender 
(LGBT) press. Many are just now wondering why MMOW critics, like the Ad Hoc 
Committee for an Open Process continue to oppose an event that is clearly not 
going to be canceled. In fact, the efforts of the critics along with other 
factors are certain to have a dampening effect on the turn out for the 
event"undoubtedly to the delight of right wing religious wackos like Pat 
Robertson.
    Why does the criticism continue? Here are the top five reasons this event 
should not be supported by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender 
communities:
    1) the MMOW was not called by our community, instead a small group of 
people decide where, when, and under what banner we should march;
    2) the MMOW has refused to open its financial records to the 
community"MMOW leaders are annoyed by requests for financial disclosure and 
emphatically state they will not release the information until long after 
April 30th;
    3) the MMOW has not been financially supported by the community and is 
committed to several corporate sponsors. In 1993 the MOW stage communicated 
the civil rights message of the event, `A Simple Matter of Justice,' with a 
giant banner on scaffolding to the left of the stage. In 2000 you will see, 
the `Advocate', `PlanetOut,' and `United Airlines,' around or over the stage. 
This is a profound and unprecedented sell out of civil rights. The reason 
your stage will be used for corporate promotion"`We have obligations to our 
sponsors,' says MMOW director Diane Hardy-Garcia. More than 90% of the 1993 
revenue was obtained from individual donations ($10, $20, $30) and 
merchandise sales"1993 belonged to you"MMOW belongs to United Airlines, 
PlanetOut and the Advocate;
    4) the MMOW claims to represent a diverse group of people, but it 
doesn't. It doesn't matter who is on the board of MMOW because they were not 
chosen by their communities. The MMOW board touts 50% representation of 
people of color, but when it comes time to make decisions, all that is needed 
is a quorum of the board. Neither race nor gender factor into the quorum 
equation. Often the majority present at MMOW board meetings is a majority of 
men and a majority of white people. In 1993, 50% POC and gender parity 
meant"who makes the decisions, not who is promoted on a web site;
    5) the MMOW has not been able to communicate why the LGBT communities 
should engage in a mass mobilization against their government. Of course 
there may be good reasons. Why can't they say, `We demand passage of a 
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual. and Transgender civil rights bill...'? If we don't 
have a list of demands of the U.S. government, then why are we going to 
Washington?
    This fifth reason to not march (MMOW's `no reason to march') is perhaps 
the most important of all. MMOW board members have inexplicably hidden their 
`working vision' from the community. It is not on their web site. It is not 
in their literature. MMOW has not made it public via a press release. If you 
want it, you may be able to get it by e-mailing MMOW's media director Corri 
Planck.
    The `working vision' has a bizarre history and is hardly a blueprint for 
building a consensus behind a set of reasons to protest your government. The 
process began in January 1999 when the Washington Blade reported that the 
MMOW would conduct a survey. `We'll be asking people for their input on where 
the movement should go and what they think are the most important issues for 
this march,' then MMOW board member Diane Hardy-Garcia told the Blade.
    However, the survey did not materialize until it was refashioned into the 
MMOW platform ballot and announced at a April 30, 1999 press conference. The 
ballot contained 13 vague topics and asked people to pick 5. The topics were: 
Hate Crimes Legislation; Right To Marry; Non-Discrimination in Employment; 
Right To Serve Our Country; Lesbian Health Issues; AIDS/HIV Issues; Child 
Custody and Adoption Rights; GLBT Aging Issues; Immigration Rights; GLBT 
Youth Issues; Overturning Anti-GLBT Laws; Right To Privacy/Choice; GLBT 
Global Issues; and Other.
    Critics charged that the data collected would be skewed along class and 
race lines because most of it would be collected over the internet. Critics 
also pointed out that for the first time a national LGBT march would not 
explicitly address the issue of racism. MMOW board members bristled at the 
criticism and called the critics racist.
    Then, in a December 10, 1999 Blade article MMOW board members revealed 
they weren't bound to the results of the platform balloting process. MMOW 
board co-chair Donna Red Wing told the Blade, `The Internet really does reach 
a vast constituency, ...But we decided that we needed to make a much more 
aggressive outreach to people of color and women.' The top five vote-getters 
did not include racial justice issues (because they weren't on the ballot) or 
`Right To Privacy/Choice'.
    So, MMOW board members added language about racial justice and privacy. 
However, they dropped the word `choice.' For the first time, an event touted 
as a national civil rights march by and for our community will not address 
the issue of reproductive freedom. Then again, it isn't really addressing any 
issues.
    The Millennium March on Washington is not the fourth national 
mobilization for the rights of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people. 
It was not called by our community. It is not accountable to our community. 
It is obligated to corporations, not to individuals. It does not represent 
our community. It demands nothing from our government. History should not 
record the MMOW in the same vain as the 1979, 1987, and 1993 MOWs.
    When deciding whether or not to go to the MMOW remember, if this `event 
in search of a purpose' achieves reasonable numbers, then sometime in the 
future a small group of people may just try to do this again. The processes 
by which we work together are more important than what Pat Robertson thinks 
or does.

Billy Hileman was a national Co-Chair and Treasurer of the 1993 March On 
Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. He is a 
member of the Ad Hoc Committee for an Open Process and Publisher of Planet Q 
Newspaper in Pittsburgh, PA.

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